Bitcoin Price Can Climb Far Above $13,000: Factors & Trends

Clif High’s estimation that three ounces of gold would be equal to a Bitcoin in price by this time next year remains a bizarre proposition that is not impossible to achieve.

In a way, a predicted Bitcoin price rise from a meager $1180 to more than $13,000 seems attractive and the technicality of how that would be the case defies common understanding of the law of demand and supply. It could be a repeat of the 1979/1980 scenario.

This link to a historical event particularly fits in with the fact that High’s data sets have been proven accurate in other instances and his latest estimate show that Bitcoin price would be hinged on the rising price of gold – from $1206 today to about $4,800 by March next year, about a 300 percent increase.

Working it out

Between 1978 and 1979, the price of gold recorded more than 120 percent growth from $207 to $455, the highest in its history, due to high inflation because of strong oil prices, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the impact of the Iranian revolution, which prompted investors to move into the metal.

By January 1980, gold hits record high at $850 per ounce though for a while as investors seek safe haven – that’s a 310 percent increase between 1978 and January 1980.

Figuring out the total amount of gold that has ever been produced is hard. However, going by rough estimates, there are approximately six bln ounces of gold available – that is 375 ounces of gold to one Bitcoin in terms of production if we are to go by the fact that about 16 mln Bitcoins have been mined so far.

Its production rate does not necessarily translate to a higher price for either even though the number of ounces to be extracted later are unknown and it is certain that there could only be a finite 4.8 mln Bitcoins more to be mined in the next 123 years according to its whitepaper.

Other strengthening factors

One Bitcoin would be harder to get than an ounce of gold even as interest in the pricing arrangement of both commodities is increasing. Though they both show the potential to become more valuable with time, the catch-up Bitcoin played recently has cast doubt on the outlook for gold as the future’s main store of value. More so, until last year, the price of gold slide for the previous three years.

Somehow, the argument that either gold is overpriced or Bitcoin is undervalued is already adding a twist to the discussion. Different opinions are being formed as the common knowledge that Bitcoin’s value has been growing as well as the understanding of its usefulness has been improving among more people from various sectors.

Coupled with its thinning supply which has been influencing its price and the fact that it could be considered advantageous over gold in several ways including cutting out shady bank practices – though its reliance on electricity and the Internet is still a key argument that has been made against it, a sudden surge could not be overruled.

More of the growing millennials who choose to look in its direction are finding Bitcoin handy and easier to relate with more than gold despite its intrinsic value, its tangibility and its record centuries of existence.

Bitcoin is decentralized, easily moved, harder to counterfeit and gets increasingly difficult to mine over time. These basic features which have been spreading more, stand to favor Bitcoin even to make its price climb far above High’s estimate of $13,000 and its market cap correlatively increase to as much as $40 bln or more in a 12-month period.

Millionaires will be made.

Come join us as we build to make millionaires in this revolution. Check the calendar for weekly webinars. Join me in The Coin Club. It cost you nothing. You are only depositing your Bitcoin, (to withdraw later), watching the system grow your coin and the commissions you also receive when others deposit into the system below you. Pretty cool.

How to Build an Inbound Marketing Strategy in 24 Hours

Do any of these statements sound familiar? A lot of marketers and CEOs we talk to feel like they are doing all the right things. But, they aren't achieving their goals.

A recent survey from DM (Direct Marketing) News confirms this is common. 46% of the executives surveyed, stated that a "lack of an effective strategy" was the biggest obstacle in achieving their inbound marketing goals.

So why is everyone struggling? I'm not quite sure as to WHY, but in this blog, I'll show you HOW you can overcome this obstacle…and overcome it in the next 24 hours. Let's roll!

What is Strategy?

First, let's identify what strategy actually is. It really doesn't have to be that complicated. Strategy is simply a plan of action designed to achieve an expected goal. So, we need a goal to get started. For the purpose of this article, let's say that our goal is to generate 50 qualified leads per month for my sales goal.

A worthy goal.

Now, we need a plan of action that will get us there.

Note: You may have a different inbound marketing goal, so just apply this same framework in order to backtrack from your goal, to an activity plan.

Identify Audience

If we're going to generate 50 qualified leads per month for your sales quota, we need to define a "quality lead". Let's pretend we're a coffee distributor that provides energizing weight loss coffee for coffee drinkers, dieters, fitness, etc. If we can get a “Sample” Request, a pre enrolled lead, we consider that a quality lead.

Okay, so now we've got an audience and we know what a quality lead is. We're getting closer to being able to build our plan of action.

Action Steps for Identifying Your Audience:

Nail down your target market. Target Market Example: Diet sites located in the United States, health clubs that are doing between $500,000 and $20M in revenue annually.

Talk to the sales team and establish what a quality lead is. In this case, we know we need 50 Sample Requests and Pre Enrollments each month.

Time Estimate: 2 hours

Honestly, this should be something you already know (your target market).But give yourself an hour to talk to a few people inside your sphere, friend networks and groups, read through your messaging, and establish who you're really after.

Give yourself another hour to talk to a few reps or the sales people in your network. Or potentially, set up a conference and invite others in your network that is similar in their business to yours.

Identify Where Your Audience Lives Online

Once we know who our audience is and what our goal is, we need to locate our audience. Where are they online? You'll want to look at social media, blogs, websites, and forums. Make a big list! Here's what I might do if I were looking for vertical markets.

First, I'd dive into social media. I know LinkedIn is better for B2B, so I head there first. There are tons of various groups, so I started looking for groups full of my audience. A quick search for "dieters" brings up 978 different groups.

I will continue my search for "fitness", " coffee drinkers ", and "weight loss". After spending some time gathering a list, hopefully I've identified at least 500 solid groups that have my target audience.

Next, I'll explore other social media options to see if there is anything market specific. After spending some time on Google, I run across Over Coffee, a social network for coffee drinkers, marketers and socializers.

Still further, I'll spend some time on Google again looking for blogs, forums and other websites where I might find my audience. As an example, it is a pretty sure assumption the Fast Diet forum fits.https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/

Another excellent tip is searching for the topics in Discuss. Since Discuss has no search abilities, Google comes in handy. But you have to know the tricks to search. I made a little video here to explain how quickly.

At the end of this research process, you should easily have 500-1000 websites (forums, blogs and other websites), groups (on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) and communities (on Google+) on your list. Now, we're getting somewhere! We're narrowing down the Web and locating the corners in which we want to spend our time and effort.

Action Steps for Finding Your Audience:

Spend time looking at social media, websites, blogs and forums for your target audience.

Don't shortchange yourself here.Put in the time to locate your audience.This step will serve you well for many inbound campaigns into the future, so spend about four hours doing your research.

Create the list in your MH backlinks as you go along.

Identify Pains, Problems, Questions

Ok, just to re-cap. We now know:

Our goal

Who we're targeting

Where they live online

Now, it's time to dig for pain. As you're doing your research and visiting groups, websites and blogs with your audience, start listening. What does that mean, really? How do you listen? What are you listening for?

What you want to do is listen to the problems that your audience is expressing. You want to write down the questions they are asking. Write down the things they are complaining about. You want to be able to speak their language.

You'll start to see different discussion questions, comments on blogs, or frustrations. Here are a few sample discussion topics I pulled from a LinkedIn Group full of dieters.

Obviously, you want to identify challenges and pains around the product or service you offer, but sometimes you can get some really powerful insight just by writing down any common questions or problems. You'll start to see some trends.

As you'll see in the next section, we want to use these questions, pains and problems in our content and messaging.

This should take you about 2 hours, but don't be afraid to spend 3 or 4 if you feel you're not seeing any trends.

Create a Content Calendar

Alright, now we're ready to create a content calendar. Most people want to rush into this step because it feels like you're accomplishing something. However, this step won't be worth much if you haven't dedicated the time to your research.

There are articles that walk through this step in much more detail, so I'm not going to do that. This will be a high level overview.

Basically, now that we've got a sense for what our audience is dealing with, we can brainstorm some effective blog titles, maybe some webinar topics and definitely some e-book ideas. If we think back to our goal of 50 qualified leads per month, you might be asking, "How many blog articles should I be writing?" or "How many capture pages, do I need?"

You can make an educated guess, but this is always the unknown with strategy. (Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty) You make the best plan of action you can to achieve your goal, but you'll need to adjust your plan over time depending on how close you are getting to that goal.

Based on my experience, without knowing how much traffic this hypothetical website is getting or how many leads it's currently generating, you'll want to be creating 2-3 blog posts per week.

The SNAP plugin for Word Press then allows greater broadcasting to over 25 social networks and literally millions of LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ groups and Twitter hash tagged directories.

The potential of just the “SNAP | Word Press | Markethive Broadcast” plugins can literally build reaches into the billions. We know because we have achieved this.

You'll also want to have at least two or three e-books that you can leverage to capture leads. This is not a difficult process. Spend some time writing your story, your perspective of the industry you are chasing. For instance I have written the following ebooks (7):

You also have Markethive to offer. It is a million dollar platform, offering a monthly service others charge $1000s for, with free membership. But if you are in a vertical market, like diets or coffee, you might want to offer ebooks, live webinars, samples, etc.

In addition to the e-books, you'll want to integrate the Markethive nurturing program that moves leads down the funnel towards the level of being joined to you as an Alpha Entrepreneur. Markethive’s lead nurturing system is a quantum leap from other so called lead nurturing when in reality they are nothing more than disguised email espionage.

Don’t know how to produce an ebook? No problem, I wrote a blog on how and why just for you.

Markethive uses Google’s calendar. It is available on all platforms, Droid, iPhone, Tablets, Laptops and Desktops. It integrates with other Google calendar accounts; it allows events, notes, hidden appointments and reminders, to do lists, and sharing with others who have set up a calendar. Like Markethive’s calendar.

Your promotions plan is just as important, if not more important that your content plan and calendar. Most marketers feel like once they hit "publish", it's time to start working on the next piece. Not true! Once you hit publish, it's time to go to work promoting that article.

You spent time writing it, editing it, finding an amazing photo and placing a relevant call to action. Now, it's time to zero in on our audience and share that content with them. This is how we'll drive people back to your content, they'll click on your e-books, receive your emails and ultimately sign up for that demo, service or product!

Creating your promotional plan will be much easier now that you've got a master list of where your audience lives. You'll be able to share your blog articles as discussions in exactly the right Facebook Groups, Google Groups, LinkedIn Groups and Twitter automatically as you blog. (it is a SNAP)
See blog on video on SNAPPINGhttps://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/the-reach-aka-blog-casting

You'll be able to comment on other websites and blogs and reference your content in a super relevant fashion because you know exactly what your audience’s challenges and pains are. You'll be able to craft blog titles that are irresistible to your audience because you studied their problems and pains.

Your promotions plan should basically be the time you spend promoting your article to all the places on your master list. It might look something like this:

Blog Title: Lose Weight with Coffee

Promotion:

Create a discussion in all 20 LinkedIn Groups and frame it with the question "What is your biggest weight lose challenge right now?"

Jump into a couple of forums and find the discussions around coffee and diet. Add value to the discussion and add a link to the blog post as a reference point.

Find individual dieters on Facebook Groups or other websites and send a personal email with a link to the article.

Send out an email to all current leads in the database and share the article.

So, your promotions plan will have some activity that you'll do every time you create a blog post. Then, for specific topics, you may have additional activities you'll want to add that make sense based on the topic.

Action Steps for Content Calendar:

Write out all the possible promotional activities you might have for a specific blog post. Each time you publish, go to that list and execute as many as possible!

Time Estimate: 1 hour

Spend an hour brainstorming all the ways you could promote a blog post, e-book or piece of content.

Your Strategy

Phew! There's a lot of work there, but you can do it… and you can do it in less than 24 hours! The total time spent in this process totals 11 hours. Obviously, it would be a long work day to push through these activities, but you'll be setting yourself up for success over the next several months, if not years. If you can't block off an entire day to do this, spend a couple hours each day for a week and you'll be all set.

Your goals and strategy will change over time, but I wanted to break down a very simplistic way to create a strategy quickly and start moving forward.

Just to re-cap what you need to do:

What is your goal?

Who are you targeting?

Where do they live online?

Develop your content calendar.

Create a promotional list.

I'm curious… how much time do you spend on research before diving into content creation?

It comes almost two weeks after the company's cofounder and CEO Peter Smith told Business Insider the company would "pretty easily" have its biggest ever month for activity in November, following a surge in use after Donald Trump's shock election victory in the US.

He told BI shortly after the election: "People are basically hedging against economic instability. It's a worrying time to be holding a lot of British pound or if you're America — people flee to safe haven assets. Bitcoin is one of those."

Smith says in an emailed statement on Wednesday: "Hitting this milestone at this particular moment isn’t a coincidence. In the wake of the Brexit vote, the US Presidential election and a weakening Yuan, we have seen unprecedented levels of activity and transaction on our platform, which further suggests that people are embracing the need for a more globally accessible currency system, and one that does not exclude over one-third of the world’s population.

"We are excited to play such an important role in powering the world’s shift to a more open, fair and accessible financial system."

Blockchain lets people download software onto their computer that lets them open a digital wallet to store cryptocurrency bitcoin. The wallet, which lets people store their own bitcoin rather than hold it with Blockchain, can also be used to pay for things using bitcoin.

Blockchain employs around 25 people in London but also has offices in Luxembourg and New York. The company is the world's biggest provider of digital wallets for bitcoin, with over 50% market share, and processes over 150,000 transactions a day on average. It has raised over $30 million (£23.9 million) to date.

Archive from 2001 (Archive.org) Inetekk.com…"The rules have changed, and if your a Spammer, you lose!""by Thomas Prendergast"

What's happening out here on the Internet today? The cold Internet non-relationship, non-human automaton mentality has been decimated in recent months, with many system's marching in the footsteps of the banner ads, screen saver ads and non personalized Spam that has stopped having much value at about the same time the Dot.com meltdown occurred.

Many old school Internet marketers, believing technology is an "end," not just a "means," in e-marketing success, are not having the same results they did years ago.

The e-services boom/bust will doubtlessly be debated in business schools for years to come. But it's certainly an appropriate time now, with the Web e-services sector 5 years old, to consider how the successful e-services firms will be serving their clients during the Web's second five years.

One fundamental conclusion is clear: Until and unless Internet marketers transform themselves into a unique and caring person focused on delivering real services and relationship marketing results, they will continue to lose their leverage.

Consider some of the most rancorous and foul email experiences most of us continue to endure:

"Hi, I just visited your site and if you are like me, you are trying to succeed on the Internet too. Please visit my website to learn how to make $5,000 per month in just 7 days. I did and you can too. Go to http://get-rich.net"

"Hello Friend, If you want to learn how to make money on the Internet, please call me right now. 888-555-1212."

"Get in at the top. Did you know that 90% of the Millionaires in the world got their by getting in first before the rest of us did? Now is your chance. Go to my website and sign up today! http://get-rich.net"

"Dear Entrepreneur, This is not spam. Why? because I said so and I have your email address because you gave it to me last week, remember? Anyway, do you want to make some money in the home based business revolution? Just return this email to me at marketmaster34320opr5@hotmail.com and I will send you all the juicy get rich quick details."

I exaggerated that last one, but, seriously, some of them are that bad..

At the core of this marketing silliness is typically something I refer to as "relational discharge" — a lack of connection between the recipient and the sender. Nothing comes close to building trust, much less the soft touch.

As a result, you don't give the recipient a single reason for interaction. You're unable to learn much about what your recipients look like, much less a chance to develop a real relationship. And you certainly can't effectively deliver personalized content and offers to them this way.

Successful e-marketing more and more is about interconnecting and personalizing the information and that's increasingly as much about organizational culture and awareness, as it is about design and technology.

Marketers with a heritage just in web design or mass marketing will have a hard time. And with the prospects' perception increasingly shaped not by the advertising you do but by the quality of their interaction with you, traditional mass marketing techniques are vastly becoming dinosaurian.

Does this mean the coast is now clear for marketers, particularly direct marketers, to jump in and save the day? Direct marketers often believe their off-line marketing skills map directly to interconnected web and e-mail campaigns.

The reality is that marketing off-line limits the number and type of activities marketers can engage in. Direct marketers are conditioned to "sell something" in each interaction with a prospect, i.e. offer/ response, offer/response. Unfortunately, this focus is much less about encouraging a dialog between the prospect/customer than it is about moving products and services to make the quick commission.

Online, the focus needs to be not on selling, but on helping the prospect/customer solve a problem or fill a need … when they need it. In one sense, it's about creating the "world's best friend," always there and ready to help, but not in-your-face-pushy.

For example, Inetekk, a leading provider of homebased business leads, runs many small websites offering free vacations, software, marketing services, etc., to help it build awareness to the industry. But instead of building large databases of these prospects, then selling them to hundreds of bidders, subscribers to Inetekk's services are the direct beneficiaries to these prospects on a one on one basis. The prospect is immediately married to a specific subscriber, so both sides of the equation are immediately made aware of each other and the personalized process of building trust is begun.

Rather than the prospect getting screamed at by hundreds of marketers who buy similar type of leads from companies like Prostep, the prospect is slowly but surely led into a personal relationship with one designated subscriber:

Entrepreneurs who are in need of valuable services, can get them for free in exchange for allowing an individual to call on them with the intention to help them out. Visitors with a higher level of interest are encouraged to sign up for additional services and newsletters, giving the subscriber many points of personalized contact with the prospect.

Once visitors are actually moved to buy something, they can click through a purchase system already in place.

The process of "building relationships online" becomes one of "selling all the time … without selling at all." This "unbounded selling" is about a more consistent relationship between Inetekk subscribers and prospects, across a higher number of transactions/interactions.

So, if not the design firms, the technology integrators, advertising agencies or direct marketing firms, then whom?

I'm talking about you. A new breed of Internet marketer is evolving, one that understands the needs of the prospects' and has developed the skills to help prospects build trusting and long lasting relationships.

You, as an individual, do not need the technical skill to bridge to the prospects, Inetekk has automated that part for you. You get to do what is easiest, create truly personalized interactions and provide the services and needs that build the long lasting relationships that ultimately turn into good business for both sides of the equation.

Finally, with Inetekk's services, like Veremail and Veretekk you now have the organizational and strategic capabilities to bring it all together.

Advertisers and marketers must either take on their prospects' challenges or face being marginalized as a mediocre insignificant nuisance of the Internet life cycle.

About Thomas Prendergast:

In 1982, Tom started an Ad and Design Agency in San Francisco. The company grew to $2 million in revenue by 1988 with 18 employees and a customer list of Fortune 500 companies. Their specialty service was "Direct Marketing."

Tom entered the Internet in 1990 and immediately started a home-based business as an advertising and Internet consultant.

In 1992 he started to develop an automated marketing system to use for recruiting and training downline. This system resulted in building huge downlines in very little time. His automated system is now self duplicating.

Tom has built benchmark sites utilizing his self-duplication and automated marketing systems that others aspire to have. He has developed some of the best Internet communities, systems and technologies that really work. Tom has built a reputation of doing exceptional engineering, design, quality and utilizes today's technologies yet delivers a user friendly system.

He is known in the Industry as an Internet genius, The Bomb by his friends and a major threat by his competitors. He resides in San Diego, CA with his two children and his wife.

About His Lead and Marketing abilities!:

No one knows Internet Marketing better then Thomas Prendergast. The less said the better, just check out his Veretekk system right now! CLICK HERE!

The Valentus Connection

I have known Dave Jordan for several years now. He is a brilliant and empathetic man. We have much in common. He is the founder and CEO of Valentus. I was once a distributor when they launched. I terminated that distributorship for several reasons.

I was poorly matched to my sponsor. He was simply unprofessional and I exercised the 6 month rule and terminated my position with plans to return after 6 months to seek a better sponsor.

With that said it was clear it would take time for Valentus to shift into a more concentric model and even more so, to actually become a customer centric system so this also affirmed my terminating from the company, until such time I felt they actually deserved my recognition for pushing forward into “customer centricity”.

You will notice the following milestones of Valentus that separates this company from “ALL” of the rest of the companies. The following illustrates this:

A product that has demand and 80% reorder rate. But even more telling, is this product sells at auction on Ebay (backed up by historical search) a selling point about 25% above the cost point. This is un heard of in MLM.This is a product that the demand is growing and the selling point increase backs up.

Valentus delivers a portfolio of pages. Some are only for retail, another is a lead taproot system. Others are for recruiting distributors. So, there are Leads pages, Customer acquisition pages (retail sale), and distributor acquisition pages. Further noted, all pages are responsive too.

There is the ability to drop ship samples to prospects automatically from the back office dashboard. This one feature alone, saves the distributor time, frustration and money.

Also knowing Dave Jordan as I have done, I know he has plans and I am part of those plans to build a truly customer centric business. I am confident and have been assured this being the case we can expect Valentus to eventually deliver the following promise:

Self-replicated Amazon stores, were we as distributors, have the option to automatically have an Amazon store, were, Valentus collects the money, sets the price threshold and ships the product. But they are our stores, were we manage them, promote them and add other inventory as we wish.

800 telemarketing service platform: Today’s technologies not only make this proposed service affordable, but extremely effective. Typically, new distributors are assigned an ID# number. The number resides within the servers database to track sales, commissions, etc. of the distributor. Thus the hardest part is already done for an 800 sales number. [A little explanation of current tech] 800 number technology software interfaces display the originating number, or forwarded number. IE: If the distributor develops a radio commercial with a phone number (toll free or not) then forwards that number to the company 800 number, all he or she needs to do is register that number (via the back office) or calling it in. This way the telemarking operators receiving the incoming calls, or the technology, know who originated the call and the orders are taken and assigned appropriately to the distributor.

It can be as simple as the distributor takes a call from an ad, the prospects decides to buy the product. The distributor can easily 3 way into the 800 platform and assist the sale. It can be as easy as an ad running offering a product with the company main toll free number offering free shipping and handling with the special pin number. It can be very easy to build.

Imagine the projected results with the distributors taking the initiative, no more need for mentors, no more need for charming leadership, no more need for motivational events, because the motivation is found in the system and the results. Imagine!

Customer and Lead co-op acquisition: This is where the company marketing people run ads, driving vertically targeted prospects to an 800 number or website, acquiring quality pre enrolled prospects or customers who have purchased or best have enrolled into auto ship. The distributor’s contribution enhances the company’s budget and the “partnership” enhances the customer’s retention. The company also makes available to the distributor mailing lists to their “enrolled leads and customers” to assist in the continued purchases etc. It is a win win situation and is a proven technique as proven by Trivita.

Basically, the MLM company has an API developed that interfaces with Amazon, Ebay, etc for the distributor. This allows the distributor to develop an online store on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc, drive and support the prospects and customers, but the sale interfaces through the company. Thereby the company controls the pricing, collects the money (connected to the distributor) and ships the product. All the collecting, shipping, tracking and commissions paid out is done by the company.

API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.

Basically allows the company to remotely control pricing, merchant collection, shipping and communication via the distributors Ebay, Amazon, etc. account

Social Marketing Aps and systems: Marketers, merchants, etc. need a portfolio of tools, to get the message out, to build awareness, to build a sphere of influence and to build a customer and distributor centered loyalty program. Very few people, even entrepreneurs have all the skill sets to achieve this. However, automated marketing, email auto responders, social broadcasters, coop advertising, blogging platforms, materials and videos are necessary tools for the entrepreneur. When you do not supply these types of tools in a controlled environment, the message being broadcasted may not meet the criteria of the company nor abide by regulations.

There are solutions and Markethive is one of the best options. Markethive supplies all of these tools and more, integrated and easily configured and controlled within the communities vertical structures built for DSA companies like yours. It is called the company Directories and within a company portal in Markethive, your distributors will find all they need; Broadcasting platforms, self-replicating personalized PDF documents, Coop advertising systems, blogging platforms, email auto responders, everything needed for marketing, in one place.

Momentum

What does that mean?

Momentum is a mystery to most Network Marketers but it’s also the most talked-about and influential subject in MLM. It is also maddening.

I mean both in a fantastic and exciting way.

Embracing the possibility of ‘getting in before momentum’ is a miraculous thing if you want to build a huge business in the shortest period of time. When momentum is happening, recruitment and sales accelerate in ways that make you scratch your head. Fast Pace becomes SILLY Fast Pace. So many people join your team that you can’t keep up with training everyone.

In the middle of it, as things get fun, each time you check your genealogy report and expect to see it up a few hundred people, it multiplied to thousands and suddenly your heart beat gets faster and faster. People look at you and you seem to walk on clouds.

If you believe in the power of momentum, you will sound like a ‘loon’ in discussions about your company’s growth so keep it to yourself.

The goal of this blog post, is to bring the most maddening and sometimes mysterious concept of momentum to the forefront. Companies going into momentum are not ‘sure things’ going forward, but as I have long believed, momentum moments can be captured by a few lucky network marketers.

I can’t be there to tell you when that happens, because no one told me. But it is a lifestyle altering scenario that can make sense for some.

Why Are We In Search Of Momentum

When there is no momentum, we are extremely vulnerable to distraction and defeat. Our inner critic awakens, and we start second-guessing ourselves, doubting the possibility of success. Other people’s demands creep in, asking for our attention and focus. We start to look at new projects or ideas that seem even more worthy of execution, tempting us to move onto the next big thing without ever finishing.

Many years ago I studied NuSkin

And what you see on the graph below is the growth cycle of Nu Skin starting in 1984.

As you can see in 1989, this company went from $40 Million in 1989 to $5oo Million in 1991, all the way to $1 Billion in 1993.

500 Millionaires were created in this company during that time. Some people kept pace with that company during that explosive growth and saw their income skyrocket within a very short period of time.

Richard Poe in his Wave III book shares the following explanation:

Typical Growth Patterns of Successful Network Marketing Companies

According to Richard Poe, author of Wave 3: The New Era in Network Marketing, there are four distinct growth phases that typically occur in successful network marketing companies. Knowing these phases and knowing what phase your prospect company is in is key to potential big money.

Formulation: This is the first two years when start-up is happening.Ninety percent of network marketing companies fail during this period.

Concentration: At this stage the company enjoys $3-$50 million in annual sales.This is the “growing pains” stage, when the company has to adapt to rapid growth and change in order to service its swelling customer base and sales force.

Momentum: This is when the company’s annual sales explode as geometric growth kicks in.Typically, sales jump from about $50 million to $500 million annually in about five years.At this stage, the product becomes a household word, sales people rush to join the company and make very good money.Those who were fully established in the company at the onset of the momentum can make fortunes overnight.

Stability: Now the company continues to grow, though less spectacularly.The product line is often diversified to try to create a new wave of momentum.

Other Criteria: It is also important to determine if you have a growing high quality product line (especially consumables) and you may have winner.Finally look at the Founders and other backers and determine if they have a good success record and they can bring wide exposure to the business.

As of this writing, Valentus is breaking all sales records throughout the industry. Unlike like most MLM companies, Valentus has taken 2 years to reach $40 million in sales.

But what’s important is that $40 million needs to be produced in one market to enter into momentum. Valentus is headed to do over $40 million worldwide in the second year of business. This is where critical mass will push us into momentum and people will hear about Valentus from everywhere.

How many millionaires will be created when Valentus enters into momentum?

I personally don’t think it’s a question of how many it’s going to be, but WHO are they going to be? Because it’s going to happen and we’re poised for this right now.

In this early stage of creating momentum it is extremely important to overcome any barriers that come your way. As momentum increases, this will become easier but in the early stages it may take a focused effort if problems come your way. A train moving at full speed will smash right through a brick wall and keep moving; however a single rock placed properly can prevent a stopped train from getting started. So in the early stages of creating momentum, if problems or obstacles occur, do whatever it takes to get past them and move forward. That same problem will become easier as you see more and more success.

It has been my agenda for nearly 20 years to reform an industry that is for the most part built upon a shifting and unreliable foundation that has always been broken and is heading for total annihilation. If you have attempted to build a business in MLM Network Marketing) you will relate to what I am addressing.

For over a decade this vision has grown in urgency and definition to help direct a broken industry towards developing a customer based centered direct sales model. All of this was originally inspired by a maverick move towards customer acquisition by a company called Trivita. In 2001 I was introduced to this new direction in MLM by the simple statement, just buy your customers. I had already been engaged in the MLM industry for nearly 10 years at that time. My first exposure to MLM was in 1992 with the first to market a consumer (customer) based ISP, nationwide dialup Internet access for $20 per month.

I have been an entrepreneur my whole adult life and a good portion of my teen years as well, with my first business started at the age of 14. Prior to my exposure to MLM, I was and still am a traditional business entrepreneur. Therefore to say, I found the MLM model of exclusive distribution to and consumption by distributors and only motivated to this action by pursuing profit; "alien, illogical and disturbing".

Let me explain:

My introduction and very successful sojourn with Trivita helped me discover the stark contrast between the artificial economies of a distributor based sales company in contrast to a customer based sales company. I studied this comparison for many years and it became painfully clear, the reason traditional MLM fails, regardless of the compensation plan, regardless of the motivational speakers, regardless of the training to sell the “Hope and Dreams” as that is the only way to promote when the products and or services are frankly, always overpriced and usually underwhelmingly ineffective. There are very few exceptions. So the glaring difference I found in Trivita was the fact that for every distributor I recruited, I averaged 100 customers. Then the fact, I did not have to sell Hope and Dreams and instead, the pitch was just buy customers. The reaction from the potential distributor was always extremely positive and the close rate of a distributor was very high. When you factor in that every distributor usually meant 100 customers, the potential success was superior to anything else like it.

This was just a company that offered co-op acquisition of the leads and customers Trivita acquired via their infomercials and not much else. Even Trivita’s products lacked true demonstrability and the pricing was not competitive. The only viable benefit regarding being customer centric was the fact you could just buy customers, that for the most part, only about 20% stayed a viable reorder over the years.

Because of this one aspect with Trivita, I have enjoyed a significant income for over 10 years with little attention, a true residual income. Over the years as a vendor to the MLM industry, occasionally getting involved with a few companies because I was promised they were going to offer customer centric solutions. None of them ever did and in my opinion, the super majority of MLMs are run by greedy sociopathic owners, that understand the game and that being the 3 month rule. They build their businesses to inspire, motivate and separate their new distributors from as much money and contacts they can. They know their business model only attracts distributors seeking some semblance of financial success therefore they lay their snares with grand claims of Hopes and Dreams. I consider it borderline criminal. Now we finally arrive to the meat of this article, that being what is a true Customer Centric direct sales company look like. Being that there really isn’t any yet, we have to go to the imagination and vision that to some part is guided by good business principles and look at some of the true customer centric businesses on the scene today.

Amazon could easily be the epitome of customer centric.

Wow. “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”

That is big, it’s bold, and it’s risky for a brand to make the promise to fulfill on that 24/7 every week of the year.

Service recovery design pays off

Of course the shopping and purchasing experience on Amazon has been exceptional for years. But what if a customer has a post-purchase problem? A big part of customer experience design is a focus on “service recovery,” or designing and refining the process when something goes wrong for the customer. Beloved brands like Zipcar know this is a critical opportunity for delivering moments of delight.

The latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals Amazon.com as the reigning and undisputed champ in both Internet retailing and across the entire department in overall customer satisfaction. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos perhaps more than any business leader has taken the philosophy of truly caring for the customer and ushered it into the digital era. Bezos has built a company from the ground up purely based off of the unbending, unyielding philosophy of serving the customer across all departments. With a 164 million Amazon customers, few would argue Bezos as the key architect of building an authentic, customer-centric company.

“We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.”

3. The Empty Chair

The Most Important Person in the Room “Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.”

4. Never Settle for 99%

“We’re not satisfied until it’s 100%.”

5. Respect Today’s Customer

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet,
they can each tell 6,000.”

6. Strive to Create a Customer-Centric Company

“If we can arrange things in such a way that our interests are aligned “with our customers, then in the long term that will work out really
“well for customers and it will work out really well for Amazon.”

7. Don’t Be Afraid to Apologize

“We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”

Over the past two decades, Amazon has held a steady pace of positive press due to their industry-altering company and great customer service. However back in 2009, the foundations of the online book mogul were shook when they remotely deleted copies of the books “1984” and “Animal Farm” from users’ Kindles. The incident prompted an outcry of Internet users to see the dark, “Big Brother” side of Amazon – one that Bezos had worked hard to steer clear of. Amazon quickly made an apology with the usual dry and inhuman statement from the press team. But what really turned people back towards Amazon, was an informal and heartfelt apology from Jeff Bezos:

From “MLM” aka “Network Marketing”,

to a sustainable Coop Customer based Marketing Platform!

Now the vision for a better kinder direct sale company

I have run MLM companies, built them, serviced them as a vendor and engaged with them as a distributor for more than 20 years. I have touched and serviced and influenced over 100 million associates over this period of time. The following is my agenda to change this industry to service the little guy and gal, offering a real solution to build a middle class sustainable income for everyone, not just the elite few, we know as “leaders” in their respective company.

1. A Viable and Competitive Product

First and foremost, the “company” must offer a viable product and or service that does what it says and better than any of their competitors and better yet, have a product or service that has no legitimate competition. I could go into great detail here about the MLM industry and their underwhelming and over priced products with many making spurious claims to eventually be shut down by the FDA, etc.

2. The Virtual Warehouse

This may be putting cart before the horse. Inspired by Amazon’s virtual warehousing for their merchants selling in Amazon, it is time the MLM industry moves forward with a similar solution. Storing and paying additional shipping, your monthly product commitment in your spare bedroom, garages or den has been the standard fro decades. With today’s technology and database management abilities, there is no excuse to not move toward a virtual solution for distributors. This can be done in house by the company, or, use Amazon’s virtual warehousing that is available on a global scale.

This one upgrade to this industry will make reselling, shipping and distribution automated and easy for every distributor, regardless of location or available storage abilities. Bottom line is a doubling or greater movement of product.

3. Customer and Lead co-op acquisition

This is where the company marketing people run ads, driving vertically targeted prospects to an 800 number or website, acquiring quality pre enrolled prospects or customers who have purchased or best have enrolled into auto ship. The distributor’s contribution enhances the company’s budget and the “partnership” enhances the customer’s retention. The company also makes available to the distributor mailing lists to their “enrolled leads and customers” to assist in the continued purchases etc. It is a win win situation and is a proven technique as proven by Trivita.

4. Becoming an E Retailer (automated back office shipping)

Now that the distributors have their inventory, products and samples (if applicable), online, in an offsite virtual warehouse, the process to send product or samples becomes effective and easy. As simple as logging into the back office of their respective MLM company, entering the product (pulling from existing inventory and/or purchasing additional inventory), quantity, and drop ship address, with a simple click, the product or sample is easily on the way, while the distributor is still talking to their prospective client, prospect or distributor on the phone. This seamless process makes the potential growth of the company and distributor 100 times greater than the typical cumbersome processes today.

5. 800 telemarketing service platform

Today’s technologies not only make this proposed service affordable, but extremely effective. Typically, new distributors are assigned an ID# number. The number resides within the servers database to track sales, commissions, etc. of the distributor. Thus the hardest part is already done for an 800 sales number. [A little explanation of current tech] 800 number technology software interfaces display the originating number, or forwarded number. IE: If the distributor develops a radio commercial with a phone number (toll free or not) then forwards that number to the company 800 number, all he or she needs to do is register that number (via the back office) or calling it in. This way the telemarking operators receiving the incoming calls, or the technology, know who originated the call and the orders are taken and assigned appropriately to the distributor.

It can be as simple as the distributor takes a call from an ad, the prospects decides to buy the product. The distributor can easily 3 way into the 800 platform and assist the sale. It can be as easy as an ad running offering a product with the company main toll free number offering free shipping and handling with the special pin number. It can be very easy to build.

Imagine the projected results with the distributors taking the initiative, no more need for mentors, no more need for narcissistic leadership, no more need for motivational events, because the motivation is found in the system and the results. Imagine!

6. API (Application Programming Interface).

Distributor selling on Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc.

Basically, the MLM company has an API developed that interfaces with Amazon, Ebay, etc for the distributor. This allows the distributor to develop an online store on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc, drive and support the prospects and customers, but the sale interfaces through the company. Thereby the company controls the pricing, collects the money (connected to the distributor) and ships the product. All the collecting, shipping, tracking and commissions paid out is done by the company.

API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.

Traditional MLM companies give a distributor a self-replicated web site that is upfront and focused on selling the Hopes and Dreams of the opportunity, the money, the comp plan, the hype and flash of it all, designed to recruit more distributors. This is death to a retail customer. Very few MLM companies even consider a dedicated self-replicated retail sales only site for their various products. I have yet to even hear of any companies making a simple widget that allows the distributor to have the retail site hosted via the widget on their own domains, much less the ability to add any customization to it. Below is one of the first and rare MLM retail sites I am aware of. It sells the coffee, the coffee benefits offers one off sale and free shipping with autoship.

Marketers, merchants, etc. need a portfolio of tools, to get the message out, to build awareness, to build a sphere of influence and to build a customer and distributor centered loyalty program. Very few people, even entrepreneurs have all the skill sets to achieve this. However, automated marketing, email auto responders, social broadcasters, coop advertising, blogging platforms, materials and videos are necessary tools for the entrepreneur. When you do not supply these types of tools in a controlled environment, the message being broadcasted may not meet the criteria of the company nor abide by regulations.

There are solutions and Markethive is one of the best options. Markethive supplies all of these tools and more, integrated and easily configured and controlled within the communities vertical structures built for DSA companies like yours. It is called the company Directories and within a company portal in Markethive, your distributors will find all they need; Broadcasting platforms, self-replicating personalized PDF documents, Coop advertising systems, blogging platforms, email auto responders, everything needed for marketing, in one place.

9. Training and videos

I do not mean motivational speakers and cheer leading. I mean, real world training how to build the businesses. Daily classes offered by competent experienced teachers, so the distributors develop a strong understanding, expanding their customer territory and acquisition and operate like a real business.

Summary;

With the accelerated market place awash in innovation and technology, technology that puts the human element right into the center of the equation, you can understand why you see the MLM industry sluggish and many companies dying on the vine and others falling flat on their faces with their much heralded launches. Entrepreneurs (distributors) that once upon a time, a flashy video, a charming pitch man, and a compelling comp plan, worked to explode the next greatest MLM launch.

Not today.

It is only a matter of time a young bold, innovative entrepreneur launches the first true customer centric MLM similar to the framework I have discussed here. And when they do, the world will quake, the swamps will empty and the first multi trillion MLM enterprise will rise to srtand head to toe with the great innovations today like Facebook Google, PayPal etc.

Ending Alpha Legacy

Markethive is a startup company, however, in a class of itself, because of its legacy. Markethive is the results of a previous company called Veretekk (A company I also owned that invented Inbound Marketing in the mid 90s), which gives us over 20 years of intensive development, and experience.

In this process we have had to raise investment capital and crowd funding by hook and crook so to speak. The Alpha Founder program was one such promotion. I offered to practically give it all away in return for your small assistance to get us through another month of development, polishing and preparation of our eventual official launch.

Now we stand to build a sustainable income utilizing the power of Markethive with a viable customer centric business. I also have substantial venture capital offers and notable recognition and the Alpha Legacy offer now stands to actually diminish our move forward.

Although the Alpha Founder offer was a great offer for you, most people either ignored it, or never understood the value that offer represented.

You see, Markethive stands to become another Unicorn tech company. Similar in tech companies like Pardot (Another Inbound Marketing Platform) very similar to Markethive just sold for 95 million and they are not energized with the Social Networking aspect we are. Other investors and industry leaders are beginning to recognize Markethive as an industry leader and the odds that we become a billion dollar venture have improved substantially.

You get that right?

Therefore I am officially closing the Alpha Legacy offer at the end of this month. If you want to acquire one or additional Alpha Legacies, you have until the end of the month, then it is over.

If you do want to acquire an Alpha Legacy or other company assets, like the legacy BigCaboodle capture page system, or a life time upgrade of our conference rooms, and other company specials, just log into Markethive and head over to the Company Special link @ https://markethive.com/specials

Stay tuned because the land beneath us is shifting. And opportunity is looming.

Social media reach: why more is more

As inbound marketers, we recommend focusing on building deeper engagement with just your target customers rather than advertising to everyone. We spend our time creating content to get found by the most relevant prospects. However, when it comes to social media it makes sense to work to build reach beyond just the most targeted prospects. This is why we are building and inventing the Markethive Reach Platform(s)

The power of the network. The Power of Markethive!

Social media embodies the power of the network (The Hive). The more people you are connected to, the more potential you have to reach relevant prospects who are open to your proposition.

In social media reach is crucial as it directly impacts how much your content and messages get shared. The more connected you are – with followers in Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn etc – the greater your ability to get found and generate leads.

Here are three key reasons that inbound marketers should consistently spend time increasing their followings in social media.

Reaching followers' followers and influencers

Having more followers means you get access to more of your followers' followers. The value of this comes from retweeting, commenting or mentioning you. For example, if one of your Twitter followers interacts with one of your tweets, that content is potentially getting exposed to everyone who follows them.

You're then reaching people who weren't following you and probably didn't know about you. Even if that original follower never becomes a customer, they've still exposed you to people who might.

Social media shares impact your SEO

Social media's impact on SEO is increasing with search engines taking social cues like shares into account when returning search results. Again, the more people that share/recommend your content, the better.

Serendipity and unexpected personas

Of course, you've developed personas as part of your inbound marketing and are working hard to create content that engages and nurtures them into becoming customers. Personas are essential and help us focus but social media creates opportunities to connect with people we weren't expecting to become customers.

Building up your following in social media gives the potential for exposure of your brand and products to people you might never have thought would be interested in what you sell and leads them back to your content.

Little and often – the secret to social media reach

If building reach isn't something you're already doing, start following new people who follow your current followers. Find influencers in your network and connect with them. Retweet and comment on their tweets and you will start to build your social media reach. Do it consistently and in a few weeks you'll have increased your reach significantly and your potential reach even more.

Unfair Advantage has returned.

Remember The Hammer?

Shortly after shutting Veretekk down I embarked on building a new platform from scratch, all new code, fresh, from the start using modern operating systems, this vision is called Markethive. It is a true social network, easily navigated and works similar to Facebook, which means it is extremely intuitive and a quick learn to use.

Markethive is a vertical social network for entrepreneurs, a culture that represents innovation, vision and determination and driven to achieve greater than one’s own boundaries. An engine that roars with the blood, sweat and tears of the individual that seeks beyond their capabilities. We now live in a time that the entrepreneur has become all of us as the traditional culture of jobs fades away into today’s realities.

But Markethive has another engine as well. If you were a member way back in the 90s you remember us ”inventing” Automated Marketing, Veremail (autoresponder emails), Traffic Portals (Blastomatic, Sohomatic, Maoney_Machine, Vereconference), Broadcasting platforms (The Hammer), Tracking (Veretracking) all of this and more all integrated, 20 years ago! Remember the massive unique leads you would get coming to you, not you chasing them?

Today it has been rebranded as Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing is attracting traffic, converting to subscribers, then converting to customers, that converting to advocates. Other companies sell a similar service for up to and more than $10,000 per month. I am not kidding. These platforms are valuable, expensive to build and flat out work!

Markethive has fused the Entrepreneur Social Network together with our own Inbound Marketing platform. The results are outstanding

The Hammer evolved into a master piece that published a message, Title and link to literally billions of FFA sites, Classified Ad sites, Guest books, and forums. It was abusive, rude, did not ask, it broke down the walls and placed it’s message, millions of messages on billions of sites. It was an amazing piece of work. It produced massive inbound traffic and leads. People literally became addicted to it. It combined an entertaining eye candy process and a huge massive result. It got oooos and ahhhhs. I became famous for The Hammer. I even have a video of one of the later versions of the Hammer. It is nostalgia in it’s purest form. Enjoy.

I have replaced the Hammer!

In fact I have eclipsed the Hammer with a new Social Networked Broadcasting tool called the Blog Caster (Broadcaster). It integrates into the hundreds of Social Networks owned by 1000s and growing into millions of Markethive subscribers accounts. It operates on a viral process of subscribers, to your posts and their subsequent reach, giving you a downstream result that can easily eclipse reaches of readers into the billions. But not static, but people who react to your messages and the traffic influx becomes massive.

And the message? It originates from your Markethive blog. So your message(s) are comprehensive and often will find themselves being shared by people you never knew. Your Markethive blog is subscribed to by your 1000s of friends and their 1000s of friends, 1000s also share your blog content, with your permission, to their many WordPress and other blogs.

Markethive WordPress plugins turn WordPress into a massive broadcasting platform, exponentially increasing even further reaches. This chain reaction has no limit.

Markethive is just getting started. If Veretekk impressed you once upon a time long ago, Markethive will blow you away. And we are just getting started.

The Inbound Marketing Methodology

Inbound marketing is all about getting found online by your audience. It's where they're looking for you. They've changed their shopping behavior, and we’re helping businesses adapt. Inbound focuses on attracting the right kind of prospects to your business and turning them into satisfied customers and brand loyalists.

What is Inbound Marketing?

It's how your audience is behaving online today.

They're not waiting for the message to be brought to them. They’re searching online for the content that helps solve a problem and make their buying process a much more informed one.

Inbound better positions your company to be the solution your ideal customers are looking for by developing an online presence that speaks to them and their specific interests and needs.

Why does it work?

The shopping behavior of your ideal consumer has changed significantly, and as a result, so have the methods for getting their attention.

Instead of relying on traditional methods of marketing that focus on pushing messages out to your audience — things like buying ads, buying email lists, sending direct mail — and hoping for a return, we focus on aligning your content strategy and overall campaign with your customer's interests in order to pull more relevant prospects toward your company.

Attract

We're not looking to simply attract website visitors, but rather attract the right kind of visitors that are valuable for business. For too long, the emphasis has been on traffic volume instead of the quality of the visitor. As consumers continually shift their attention online for research, most everyone has an online presence, including your competitors. You need something more.

Convert

Once you're driving more qualified visitors to your website, you'll want to convert these visitors into leads by collecting their contact information. To do this, you need to offer something of great value in exchange. Using your buyer personas as the foundation, crafting resourceful downloadable offers in the form of ebooks, whitepapers, videos, or checklists is the first step in optimizing your website for lead generation.

Close

Now that you're generating more qualified traffic and leads to your website, the focus now is on nurturing these leads with the right content at the right time in order to help close them into customers. By executing a personalized lead nurturing strategy, you'll successfully shorten the sales process due to the level of qualification and education your leads now have.

Delight

At its core, inbound marketing focuses on creating remarkable content for visitors, leads, and even your current customers. Once a lead becomes a customer, the process of achieving valuable brand equity is only just beginning. Continuing the positive experience with social monitoring, exclusive content, and further assistance helps to create brand loyalists, who in turn, deliver referral business.